The weekly forecast did not look very dry (or hot), but we kept an eye on it, and we ended up with much more rain-free time than we thought we might . . . thank you Jesus! Tuesday was a dry and sunny day, so we drove south about 45 minutes to the Silver Lake Dunes. Mark is a Jeep lover, so we rented a Jeep for an hour to drive out on the dunes. After only seeing the dunes in Ludington, we soon realized that they were pretty minor compared to the HUGE ones at Silver Lake. You just can't even fathom how much sand is there . . .
The gorgeous lake was behind us . . .
and then we just rotated, and this was the view from the other side . . . sand, and more sand, and even more sand.
That little red Jeep in the middle of the photo is the kind we rented to drive around on the dunes. It's so tiny in comparison!
After grabbing a bit to eat, we headed to the pedestrian part of the dunes, and found this as our "stairs" to climb up. I think there are actual wooden stairs underneath all of that sand, but you couldn't find the at all. More sand climbing!
We soon realized that sand is much easier to walk around on/climb if you are wearing socks. Thankfully with the weather being cooler, we didn't have to worry about the sand being hot at all, but it was still a good workout to climb the dunes!
I stayed up on the top of this huge dune, and Mark and the boys ran down it and walked over closer to the lake . . . that's them in the photo below . . .
I wish you could see how steep the climb back up was . . . they are at the bottom and the dune is probably close to 75 yards tall.
Going back down the sand-covered steps.
After we were done at the dunes, we found this park and enjoyed some down time here . . . the boys & Mark did some go-kart racing, and then we also played a round of mini golf.
The boys had a wristband with 5 tickets on it, so they could choose from a variety of activities to do . . . of course, bumper boats had to be included.
This was the funniest looking paddle boat I'ver ever seen . . .
Heading back north to our house, we made a stop at the lake in downtown Ludington . . .
There is a long cement walkway out to this lighthouse, and the day before when we stopped here, it was closed (it's only open depending on how calm the weather is). This time, it was open to pedestrians, so we walked out there and got to climb up inside the lighthouse.
This was a ferry that was just coming in from Wisconsin. You can ride back and forth across the lake . . .
We got back to our house in the evening after a busy day, and enjoyed a late dinner. On Wednesday, the forecast was looking pretty rainy, but we woke up to a dry morning and decided to head over to the state park one last time. I dropped off Mark and the older two at the dam to do some more fishing, then Gavin and I drove over to the beach to build a sand castle.
Cole finally caught several fish (they were not biting at all for us!)
In the afternoon, the rain moved in so we loaded up our dirty laundry and found a local laundromat. A less glamorous part of vacation, but it was nice to have all clean clothes again!
After supper, the rain was a very light mist, so they attempted one more round of fishing, and this time, Ian caught 4 of them--he was so excited!
We absolutely LOVED our stay in the Ludington area, and would recommend it to anyone! We did not have much "scheduled" and just took one day at a time, depending on what the forecast was looking like. Temps were in the 60s most of the time during the day, so warm enough for shorts, but chilly enough that a sweatshirt felt good most of the time as well . . .